The auctioneer’s dais had been placed on a small rise fifty yards away, and Struan noticed Gordon Chen standing nearby. His son bowed immediately. It was obvious to Struan that the youth wanted to talk to him and must have been waiting patiently for an unobtrusive opportunity.
“Afternoon, Gordon. I’ll see you in a minute,” he called out.
“Thank you, sir,” Gordon Chen called back, and he bowed again.
Struan saw Robb strolling with Sarah who was heavy with child, her face strained. Karen was romping beside them. Struan looked for Culum but couldn’t find him and presumed he was still on the flagship; then he saw him, deep in conversation with Glessing. He found it odd that Culum had not sought him out as soon as he had come ashore.
“Excuse me, Tai-Pan, Miss Sinclair,” Orlov said. “That’s all of them.”
“I should hope so, Captain Orlov,” Mary said teasingly. “I hear you’ve been bringing barrels ashore for the last two hours. Do you want the whole European population inebriated, Mr. Struan?”
Struan laughed shortly. “No. Thank you, Cap’n.”
Orlov touched his forelock to Mary and entered the tent with some of the seamen. Others collected around it, while a few sat on the shore and began to shoot dice.
“You’re early, Mary. The bidding does na start for an hour yet.”
“Captain Glessing was kind enough to offer me escort,” she said. “Let’s walk a little, shall we?”
“Surely,” Struan replied as he detected an edge to her voice. They began to stroll inland.
The bed of the valley was damp, and the rain of yesterday was lying in quiet pools. A stream snaked placidly from the small waterfall. Flies and dragonflies and bees and gnats sang an undercurrent to the breakers. The sun carried the promise of spring.
When they were well removed from the crowd, Mary stopped. “First, I wanted to tell you how sorry I was over your loss.”
“Thank you, Mary.”
“I tried to see you before you left for Canton.”
“I remember. That was kind of you.”
“Last night I tried to come aboard. I wanted to see how you were. That was bad joss.’”
“Aye. But it’s over. Past.”
“Yes. But I can read the hurt in your face. Others won’t, but I can see it.”
“How are things with you?” he asked, staggered, as always, that Mary could seem so ordinary—sweet, gentle, everything she should be—but was not. I should na like her, he thought, but I do.
“Life amuses me. For a time.” Mary glanced back at the beach. Brock, Gorth and Nagrek Thumb, Eliza Brock and her daughters, were getting out of their longboat. “I’m glad you’ve beaten Brock again. So very glad.”
“Have I?”
Mary’s eyes crinkled. “Forty lacs of bullion? Four coins?”
“How do you know about that?”
“Have you forgotten, Tai-Pan? I have friends in high places.” She said it conversationally. But when she was with the Tai-Pan she despised these “friends.”
“Who has—who have the other half coins?”
“Would you like me to find out?”
“Maybe I think you already know.”
“Ah, Tai-Pan, you are a man among men.” Her warmth deepened. “I know where two are. When I know about the other two, I’ll tell you.”
“Who have the two?”
“If you arranged such a huge loan, how many would you keep?”
“All of them. Aye, by God, all of them. Jin-qua has two?”
“One.” She toyed with her shawl and arranged it more neatly. “There are four thousand bannermen in Canton now. And a big armada of fire ships. There’s to be an attack on our fleet if it tries to force the Bogue forts. Another fleet’s waiting fifty miles north. Does the name Wu Kwok mean anything?”
Struan pretended to think, but inside he was reeling. Before the meeting with Scragger he had never heard of Wu Kwok—of Wu Fang Choi, the father, of course, but not the son. Mauss had not been told what had transpired on the junk or what Scragger had said. Only Robb and Culum knew. Impossible for Mary to have heard about Wu Kwok from them. So it must have come from Wu Kwok—or from Jin-qua. But how? “That’s an ordinary enough name,” he said. “Why?”
“He’s Wu Fang Choi’s eldest son.”
“The pirate warlord? The White Lotus?” Struan feigned astonishment.
“I adore shocking you,” she said gaily. “Well, the emperor has secretly offered mandarinates to Wu Kwok and Wu Fang Choi through the Hoppo at Canton. And the governor-generalships of Fukien Province—and Formosa—in return for an attack on the shipping in Hong Kong harbor. Their entire fleet.”
“When’s the attack?” His shock was authentic.
“They haven’t accepted yet. As the Chinese say, ‘negotiations are proceeding.’ ”
Could the favors Wu Kwok requested be a blind? Struan asked himself. A devilish play within a play to put him at ease and trap him? Why, then, the coin? Would they risk their entire fleet? Four thousand junks manned by those pirate scum could finish us—perhaps!
“Would you know if they accept—if there’s to be an attack?”
“I’m not sure—but I think so. But that’s not all, Tai-Pan. You should know that the reward on your head is doubled. There’s a reward on Culum now, too. Ten thousand dollars. On all the English. George Glessing, Longstaff, Brock.” Her voice flattened. “And on May-may, Duncan and Kate. If kidnaped alive.”
“What?”
“I heard three days ago. You weren’t here, so I caught the first boat I could for Macao, but you’d just left. So I went to see May-may. I told her I’d been sent by you, that you’d heard she and the children were in danger. Then I went to your compradore and told him, in your name, to take May-may and the children into his house; that if anything happened to them before you got back you’d hang him and his children and his children’s children.”
“What did Chen Sheng say?”
“He said to tell you that you need have no fear. I saw May-may and the children into his house, then came back to Hong Kong. I think they’re safe for the time being.”
“Does he know about the bullion?”
“Of course. Part of it, a small part of it, is his. What better investment could he make?”
“Who else put up the bullion?”
“I know about Chen Sheng, Jin-qua, the Co-hong merchants—they all have a share. That made about fifteen lacs. The rest I’m not sure. Probably the Manchu mandarins.”
“Ti-sen?”
“No. He’s in complete disgrace. All his wealth is forfeit. The Co-hong estimate that to be about two thousand lacs. Gold.”
“Chen Sheng said he’d look after them?”
“Yes. Now that you’re rich again, he’ll guard them with his mother’s life. For the time, anyway.”
“Wait here, Mary.” Struan turned for the beach. He picked out Wolfgang and shouted to him, beckoning, and hurried toward him.
“Wolfgang, get Orlov and take
China Cloud to Macao. Get May-may and the children and bring them and the amah back. Full sail. Leave Cudahy in charge of the tent.”